Entertainment

Mobile App Lets You Document and Report Police Stop-and-Frisk Abuse

The New York Civil Liberties Union is arming city residents and visitors with an app called Stop and Frisk Watch that records video, audio and GPS data. The civil rights defender group urges citizens to chronicle illegal stops, racial profiling and inappropriate searches by police officers.

The app was developed by Brooklyn-based Jason Van Anden, the creator of the I'm Getting Arrested Android app inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement last year.

The NYCLU was inspired by the I'm Getting Arrested app and its ability to connect protestors, in the midst of getting arrested, with help. One button within the app can blast an alert to all the protestor's contacts.

Stop and Frisk Watch works in a similar way. However, trained staff members of the NYCLU will be on the receiving end. In 2011, about 685,724 New Yorkers were stopped randomly by the police — 605, 328 were innocent, according to NYCLU-provided stats. The racial breakdown of the year's random searches looks like this — 58% were black, 34% were Latino and 9% were white. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) believes these statistics prove the stop-and-frisk policy promotes racial profiling.

The NYPD can stop, question and frisk an individual who is suspected of "committing or about to commit a crime," according to the NYS Criminal Procedure law.

"Stop and Frisks are an important tool in an officer's toolkit, but they should only be used if criminal activity is suspected, we don't disagree with that," Jennifer Carnig, NYCLU communications director, tells Mashable. "But, what we see in New York City is that Stop and Frisk is being abused by the police department."

The NYCLU actively pursues legislation that will outlaw stop-and-frisk abuse. The organization has drafted numerous bills to reform current policies. "Those bills are about creating a strong ban on racial profiling, about protecting New Yorkers against unlawful searches and about requiring NYPD officers to identify themselves and explain reasons behind Stop and Frisks," Carnig says.

The GPS-enabled Stop and Frisk Watch app is "another step in that effort" for the organization. The mobile tool is meant to empower New Yorkers. Bystanders, who witness inappropriate behavior by the police, are encouraged to turn in footage to promote social justice.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant and to give people a free tool to promote police accountability right in their own pockets was an idea too good to not try," Carnig says.

The NYPD's chief spokesperson Paul J. Browne tells The New York Times that the police department is not pleased with the application. The NYPD is worried about privacy and the chance that videos find their way onto public networks such as YouTube. Browne also argues that the app is unsafe because it discloses the real-time information about the whereabouts of police officers. He is referring to the app's "listen" fuction that alerts the user when individuals nearby are being stopped by the police. The NYCLU disagrees. Carnig explains that trusted sources will be handling and reviewing the footage.

"This [unsafe] argument just doesn't make sense. By the same logic, police uniforms, cars and badges promote crime because they identify police from a distance and even more immediately," she adds.

In any event, courts have ruled that it's legal to record police activity. The federal First Circuit Court of Appeals declared last August that citizens have to right to videotape police officers and public officials.

The app is available in English and Spanish. The record-ready app was built to be easy to use and responsive in an emergency. It has three primary uses — to record, listen and report. The video and survey information about the location and details surrounding the incident will be turned into the NYCLU. The NYCLU will hold the NYPD accountable for all reported abuses.

"We're going to have a staff monitor all the footage that comes in," she says. "Anything that's interesting, we are going to be using for public education purposes and will use for press, lobby, potentially for litigation purposes."

Do you think mobile apps like Stop and Frisk Watch can stop the alleged racial profiling and abuses in NYC?

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